Coyote Gulch

Thursday, November 23, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving

Coyote Gulch is planning to spend today with family and friends, eating, reminiscing and giving thanks for all the good life can bring. We hope you have the day off and can enjoy the day in your own way.

Thanks to Mrs. Gulch for taking such great care of me when I was recuperating from the hip replacement in the spring and for growing so many great vegetables during the summer. We'll be eating pumpkin pies today that started out as a gleam in her eye in May.

Thanks to Beaver and Eric for the helping us to understand that giving up to circumstances is failure and that success comes with hard work by keeping your eye on the prize. Thanks to Hellchild for sharing her travel experiences and teaching us about riding free.

Thanks to the Colorado Plateau for rising up through the Colorado River system and creating such a great playground. We live for the hikes, jeep trips and camping in your back country.

Thanks to the crew at Wastewater for all your hard work. Creating software is a daunting job and you do it as well as anyone.

Thanks for a another year of epicurean delights with the folks of Dining with Don. You know who you are.

Thanks to the Old Bones for the camaraderie and good times.

Thanks to all the politicians and campaign workers for a great election season. A big thanks to all my daily reads, those weblogs and online newspapers, that feed the conversation.

Thanks to everyone for the kind words about our humble work here at Coyote Gulch. Your encouragement keeps us going, digging for water stories and election news.

6:44:47 AM

Fountain Creek management

The Pueblo Chieftain keeps an eye on water issues across the state and an especially close watch on events and plans for the Arkansas River Basin. They're also fair, giving opposing voices a chance to be heard. From an opinion piece, written by Dennis Ellis, executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, running today, "In Tuesday's editorial, the Chieftain proclaimed that Pueblo District Attorney Bill Thiebaut and lawyer John Barth had 'blown the whistle' on the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment - as if the department had committed some foul. That is not the case. If this were the National Football League, the officials would reverse the call. There is no evidence to substantiate a claim that there was any foul on the part of the state. The state has rigorously applied its enforcement policies to all violations reported by Colorado Springs Utilities, just as it would any other violator. In its editorial, the Chieftain pretends that the state has excluded the Pueblo district attorney from some rightful place at the table in the state's enforcement actions on the Colorado Springs Utilities for its spills into Fountain Creek. Not so. In fact, Pueblo's participation during recent public comment periods concerning past Colorado Springs Utilities' spills resulted in modifications to the department's enforcement orders. And while the district attorney has brought federal litigation over this matter, the state is not a party to the suit. The federal lawsuit, however, does not suspend the Department of Public Health and Environment's responsibility to pursue its well-established regulatory process concerning evaluation and enforcement of illegal water discharges. The claim that the Pueblo district attorney has been excluded from the discussion is just plain wrong."

Here's the link to the Coyote Gulch post about the Pueblo D.A. Thiebaut's complaint.
"colorado water"
6:16:22 AM

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